Treat your family to this delicious cherry french toast recipe. It’s a mostly make-ahead-able dish, too!

cherry French toast stacked

This Cherry French Toast checks all the boxes – decadent, delicious and mostly make-ahead-able.

If you’re looking for a treat to share with your family, trust me … you won’t regret making this one! Imagine a rich, homemade cherry bread, sandwiched with a vanilla cream (pastry cream lightened up with creme fraiche), cooked up French Toast style and topped with a warm whole cherry sauce. It’s the perfect holiday indulgence :)

Ingredients and Substitutions

Bread – a good store-bought Brioche bread is all you need for this recipe. If you can’t find Brioche, Challah or a similar egg enriched bread will work as well.

Cherries – frozen dark or black sweet cherries are perfect for this French toast.

Cream Cheese – you can use a full fat or reduced fat cream cheese.

Recipe Tips

The cherry syrup and vanilla cream can both be made a day or so ahead and refrigerated. When it comes time to make the French Toast, simply grab all your components out of the fridge and you can be enjoying this French Toast in about 15 minutes. It doesn’t get any better than that!

This recipe make 5 French Toast “sandwiches”. A serving would most often be 1/2 of a sandwich, so each sandwich made would make 2 servings.

cherry French toast stacked

cherry French toast stacked

Get the Recipe: Cherry French Toast

This cherry French toast is a delicious and beautiful breakfast or brunch dish. Uses frozen cherries!
5 stars from 2 ratings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

For the Cherry Sauce: (can be made ahead)

  • 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
  • 17.5 oz frozen pitted dark sweet cherries, thawed
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • 2 teaspoons cornstarch

For the Vanilla Cream: (can be made ahead)

  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 35% b.f.
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 5 Tablespoons white granulated sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup cream cheese, at room temperature

For the French Toast:

  • 10 slices Brioche bread
  • 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 5 Tablespoons butter, for frying

Instructions
 

  • To make the Cherry Syrup: Sprinkle the sugar over bottom of a large saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the sugar begins to melt (1-2 minutes). Add the thawed cherries, lemon juice and cornstarch and cook, stirring occasionally, until clear and syrupy about 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat, remove half the cherries with a slotted spoon and coarsely chop. Set aside chopped cherries for use in the bread. Refrigerate the remaining whole cherries in syrup in an airtight container until required.
  • To Make the Vanilla Cream: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the cream, milk, vanilla to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until smooth. Return the cream mixture to medium-high heat and return to just below boiling over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and very slowly (a drop at a time at first), add to the bowl with the yolk/sugar mixture while whisking continuously to combine. Continue until all the milk mixture is added and then return the whole mixture back to the saucepan and over medium heat, whisk continuously until thick (4-6 minutes). Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl and let cool for 10-15 minutes, then cover closely with plastic wrap and allow chill completely (30-40 minutes). Fold in the cream cheese and refrigerate until required.
  • To make the French Toast: Place cherry syrup in a saucepan over low heat to warm while you are making the french toast.
  • Preheat oven to 300F. Spread half the bread slices with 2 Tbsp. of the vanilla cream and top with the other slices of bread, sandwich style. Set aside. Whisk together the eggs and milk in a flat bowl or deep plate to combine. Heat one third of the butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat until foaming. Dip both sides of sandwiches in egg mixture, allowing to sit in the egg mixture for a minutes, then shaking off excess, and cook in batches, turning once, until golden, about 2-4 minutes. Transfer to an oven tray lined with baking paper and place in oven to keep warm. Wipe pan clean with absorbent paper and repeat with remaining butter and sandwiches.
  • Serve hot, drizzled with warm cherries in syrup and pass the remaining vanilla cream.
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Course: Breakfast, Brunch
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 545kcal, Carbohydrates: 61g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 30g, Saturated Fat: 17g, Cholesterol: 256mg, Sodium: 209mg, Potassium: 258mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 31g, Vitamin A: 1150IU, Vitamin C: 3.5mg, Calcium: 109mg, Iron: 2.3mg
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